Why is my quake1 mdl's texture so rubbish?

Discuss the creation of various model formats for Quake engines, and related matters to modeling.
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Acidmoxy
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Why is my quake1 mdl's texture so rubbish?

Post by Acidmoxy »

I started making a quake1 mod for a college project, the model was made in max and exported (after hours of trawling the net for how to's and tutorials) to MDL via MD3. Although my UV map is perfectly set up in max, whenever I open the converted model in quick3d, Qme or Qoole, the vertices appear tiny, in the upper left hand corner of the skin, even though they should be stretched over the skin. Can anyone give me a hand here? I'll email the model and textures on request.

Many thanks in advance

frankjmryan@hotmail.com
Chip
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Post by Chip »

Did you try using qMe to increase the texture size? That would increase the tiny vertices, also.
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Acidmoxy
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Post by Acidmoxy »

If you mean increasing the skin size in model properties, I just tried that, but with no noticeable effect. I tried to make the original skin 512x512, but it seems like the vertices are squished into a 128x128 box in the upper right hand corner.
Downsider
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Post by Downsider »

I do:

3ds Max -> MD3 -> Misfit Model 3D (Group them and fix texture name), -> MD3 -> Quark -> MDL

Not the best pipeline, but it gets the job done with good results.
Chip
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Post by Chip »

Acidmoxy wrote:If you mean increasing the skin size in model properties, I just tried that, but with no noticeable effect. I tried to make the original skin 512x512, but it seems like the vertices are squished into a 128x128 box in the upper right hand corner.
I just tried it right now with a model of mine and it enlarged properly.

Upload the model somewhere, and I'll look at it, like in 10 hours or so. It's late night here and I need to sleep.
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leileilol
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Post by leileilol »

Try not using 512x512 for MDL. Try 256x256 or 128x128. MDL isn't meant for large texture UVs.

Since you're using the Quick3D pipeline, do not forget to load the texture in it before saving as a MDL.
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Acidmoxy
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Post by Acidmoxy »

It would appear I've really made a shambles of this, no matter what I try, I get errors all over the place. I've exported the original 3ds file into MD3, MD2 and MDL, I can get the model (though unanimated) into quake to replace the original soldier model, but this texture malarky is really knocking me for six. I'll try to upload the model in it's current state along with the original and the texture to see if anyone can pinpoint my stupidity. Seeing as I've exhausted every other alternative, the only reason it's not working has to be down to human error.
Downsider
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Post by Downsider »

leileilol wrote:Try not using 512x512 for MDL. Try 256x256 or 128x128. MDL isn't meant for large texture UVs.

Since you're using the Quick3D pipeline, do not forget to load the texture in it before saving as a MDL.
Quick3D always mucked up my meshes.
Acidmoxy
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Post by Acidmoxy »

Got it! The problem lay in the fact that I used a trial version of Qtip, I didn't even realise it had exported the model in such a crummy way, but I went back into max with my original model, set the texture to 440x440 (a weird size, I know), inverted the faces, exported it to .3ds, opened it in quick3d and saved it as .mdl. Bam! lovely textured model implemented into quake. one other quick question, if I export each frame of animation in the same way, will quick3d put them all into the same .mdl file for me? I plan on using the same number of frames per animation and in the same order as the original quake soldier model so I don't have to go near any coding.
ceriux
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Post by ceriux »

read my tutorial here on the forums.
Chip
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Post by Chip »

Try to use standard texture sizes, like 128x128, 256x256, 512x512. Don't go higher than that. 256x256 is recommended for most engines. Higher if you want eye candy.
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leileilol
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Post by leileilol »

You could also try using Sajt's model converter. I never used it myself.

I advise not bothering with the one-frame-at-a-time-import approach, that's just a hassle. MD3 to MDL is your best bet. Ever.
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